Staffing shortages continue to plague local restaurants, as experts say there are more jobs than workers in the industry.

Local restaurant Casa Toscano will be forced to cut down its business hours as a result of staffing shortages. Owner Luca Vitali says he is getting ready to hire for nearly every position in the next couple of weeks when his youngest staff members return to school.

Vitali says they’ll be in need of kitchen staff, retail workers for the store, dishwashers and servers for the winter. “Forty per cent of my servers are going back to school,” Vitali said.

As of right now, Casa Toscano is open 7 days a week but they will have to go back to closing its doors on Mondays starting in the fall even though Vitali says Monday has become one of its busiest days. Closing on Mondays will enable its staff to have a break.

According to Restaurants Canada, businesses across the country are experiencing the same staffing issues as Casa Toscano.

“Across the country we have twice as many job vacancies as we did pre-pandemic, it’s about 150,000 across the country,” James Rillett of Restaurants Canada said.

Restaurants Canada says just shy of half of all restaurants are reporting labour problems in the last month and staffing shortages are a major reason why the industry hasn’t fully bounced back from the pandemic.

With the skyrocketing cost of living, Restaurants Canada says fewer people are dining out and the consumer is paying more for it when they do.